


Party Animal

by Innocent Culprit (JoJo)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Comment Fic, Gen, Season/Series 01, Stanford Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-01
Updated: 2011-05-01
Packaged: 2017-10-18 20:48:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/193136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoJo/pseuds/Innocent%20Culprit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam has many lives - Dean has only one</p>
            </blockquote>





	Party Animal

**Author's Note:**

> to a prompt from nong_pradu
> 
> NB it's tagged as Gen, but it would only take a little head-tilt perhaps...

“So,” Pauly said, leaning back in his chair and folding his arms neatly and decisively across his chest, thereby creating a confusing picture of relaxation and tension both at the same time. “Dean...”

Dean, poised with the beer bottle about to enter his mouth, froze fractionally, letting the bottle hover.

“So, Pauly,” he responded.

“Yuh, Dean. So... what did you major in, man? You a legal beagle too? Or... let me guess... maybe it was something cool and groovy, like psychology... or... or... yeah, how about politics, or economics... something heavy.”

Sam cursed the fact that he was so far down the table. He hadn’t caught all the words but he could hear the challenge and the cleverness in Pauly’s voice. Dean didn’t seem fazed, though. Far from it. Sam hoped to God he’d just stonewall Pauly into submission, choke off the conversation somehow before it began in earnest, before Pauly - clever, high-achieving Pauly - got his teeth into him.

Dean chewed a flap of bottom lip once or twice, took a swig of beer, and then smiled knowingly.

“I didn’t go to college,” he said.

“Oh really?”

Pauly’s large, keen eyes ascended into his hair as he pondered that thought. “Right,” he said, and looked around the table to find a few smirk-into-the-beer grins reflected back at him. “I see.”

There was a goddamn pleased-with-himself look on Pauly’s face. Sam knew Dean really truly wanted to wipe it off. To slap it off preferably. But Sam’s last words to him before they’d shouldered in through the doors had been “behave yourself” and Dean flashed him a look now. A little, calming look that murmured “this is not a big deal” but screamed something else entirely.

Dean took another swallow, then wiped his mouth. “Too busy.”

“So what’s your line, Dean?”

“You like guessing games, Pauly. Why don’t you give it your best shot?”

Pauly’s eyes gleamed. He grinned over at Sam who wasn’t smiling, which to Pauly wouldn’t seem all that unusual. Sam knew he was thought of as an intense kind of a guy around campus. Bright as hell, but internal with it. A good friend, but a tight-ass.

“Barkeep?” hazarded Pauly. He might as well have said barfly.

Dean pursed his lips. “That’s some leap, politics to barkeep. Gotta tell you... Pauly... your guesswork sucks.”

“Come on, man, don’t hold out on us.” Pauly was humorous, persuasive and ever-so-slightly spiteful all at the same time. “It can’t be that top secret... and it’s just too damn hard to believe that Sammy Winchester’s big brother’d be the family dropout.” His shoulders shook slightly and there was a ripple of amusement round the table.

Damn Pauly. He was so good at taking the whole group with him. They were kind of embarrassed, kind of fascinated, had no intention of changing the subject just yet. Dean kept eye contact with his tormentor but something about the set of his jaw made Sam feel kind of sick.

“So, what?” Pauly was the unfazed one now. It was too late to hope he’d decided to drop it.

“Yeah,” Dean agreed. “So what?” There was just the tiniest hitch in his voice.

“You know,” Sam said, leaning way forward so he could insert himself into the conversation. “Pauly’s kind of an asshole but he’s only playing.”

Dean looked at him like he’d been slapped in the face.

“Whoah!” Pauly was full of glee. “Winchester brother smackdown!”

“Come on,” someone else said in a sharp kind of a tone, possibly deliberate, possibly not. It was one of the girls. “Party at Donohue, guys. We should go.”

There was a moment’s silence and then Pauly dragged his eyes off Dean and on to the speaker.

She raised a brow at him, then jabbed Sam in the ribs. “Jess’ll be there, Sam. Right?”

Sam’s heart jumped. “Right.”

“And she thinks you’ll be there.”

“Shit,” Pauly said. “She’s dying of love for you, man. You have to come.” He’d completely switched attention now, was doing his best to show that Sam Winchester’s brother was of so little interest to him you just wouldn’t believe it.

Sam felt a warm buzz in his chest at the thought of Jess, waiting for him at the party in Donohue Street. Dean was turning his empty bottle of beer in small circles on the table. He’d kind of shrunk into his seat.

“Your brother coming?” someone asked Sam. Like Dean couldn’t answer for himself.

“We’ll catch you up,” Sam said, getting to his feet to let his neighbor out. “You guys go on. Really.”

Pauly slung an arm round his shoulder. “Don’t be too long, man.” He smirked. “Jessikaaaaah....”

A couple of people said “nice to meet you,” to Dean before the group moved off, but Pauly didn’t even look at him. He was the one who led them out, his voice still audible even when they were through the doors and out into the street.

There was a keen silence. Sam was still sitting in his same seat, looking diagonally down the empty, beer-slopped table.

“Pauly really is an asshole,” he said eventually.

“Uh-huh.” Dean remained staring at his revolving bottle.

“I mean, really a total jerk.”

“Jessikaaaaaah,” Dean said and lifted his head.

Damn. Scruffy, pale. Dean looked like he needed a good meal and a good sleep. Like he was the family dropout. Like he was all lost at sea. Sam’s heart turned right over and he knew Pauly would never understand any of this shit in a million years of trying. He moved along into a seat right opposite his brother so their knees touched under the table.

“Jess is dying of love for me,” he said, but of course he knew she wasn’t the only one.


End file.
